Help?

[nemoorange]

I'm a Year 12 student, studying English Language and Literature (Combined course), French, Maths and Computing up in Lancashire. I'm thinking of applying to Balliol or possibly Magdalen College to study English; I was wondering if anyone studying the course could give me some information on it. I've looked at the course outline several times, but

Comments

[nemoorange]

I have tried looking at the other English courses, in particular the Classics & English course. However, as I'm not doing a course in Latin or Greek at the moment, I'd have to do an extra course, adding up to four years there. On top of that, I'd like to do my PGCE to become a teacher, therefore that's five years at university...Not really how I wanted to spend the next five years. But I look into it, thanks =)

[j4]

I'm afraid there's no creative writing component to the Oxford English course; and if you don't like analysing texts, it's almost certainly not for you -- you'd be doing pretty much nothing else for 3 years! As for the poetry... well, there aren't strictly speaking any compulsory set texts (the areas of study are divided up into historical periods, and you have a fair amount of choice as to which authors you concentrate on for each period), but there are authors it's difficult to avoid (e.g. there's an entire paper devoted to Shakespeare), and it'd be fairly difficult to avoid poetry altogether.

I'd be happy to tell you more about it (I'm not a student now -- graduated in 2000 -- but the course hasn't changed that much) but it does sound like it's not the sort of thing you're looking for!

[nemoorange]

I can analyse texts, it's just that I also love the writing aspect of English. I mean, without writing it, there's nothing to analyse, surely?

I don't mind Shakespeare, I love the older periods of history, which is part of the reason why I want to stay in a really old college. I think it's more the modern poems that annoy me, (and doing about nothing but poems for a full term. Especially depressing poems like 'Dying' by Emily Bronte.)

I'd really appreciate anything else that you could tell me about the course, I'd like to get another point of view.

[j4]

I mean, without writing it, there's nothing to analyse, surely?

Well, true, somebody has to write it. :-) But creative writing really isn't what the Oxford English degree is about: it's about critical analysis of literature and language. Of course nobody's going to stop you writing novels in your spare time!

I think it's more the modern poems that annoy me, (and doing about nothing but poems for a full term. Especially depressing poems like 'Dying' by Emily Bronte.)Well, 20th century literature is only one bit of the first year, so that's only half of one term, and you could certainly avoid 20th century poetry if you really don't like it

[chainsaw_poet97]

Hi, I'm a third year English student at Exeter College and hopefully will try to help you out. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'not the biggest fan of anaylsing texts', because that's really what an English degree is about - do you mean close textual analysis, as in writing commentaries on poems/short passages? If so, there is not that much of that in the Oxford course - it's required part of for one first year exam and part of one final exam. Poetry, however, you cannot really avoid - almost no one was writing novels until the eighteenth century, and two of the four core period papers fall before that, so for the vast majority of those papers you will be reading quite a lot of poetry and verse drama. You won't, however, have an anthology (those things seem to be mostly awful), but you'd do the poems of Milton, or Spenser, or Browning, or T.S. Eliot

[nemoorange]

My comment does pretty well match what you said, it's the commentaries on poems that annoy me because I find it harder to try and decipher what a poet meant in, say, 12 lines than to find their purpose in a full novel. I think choosing what poets to study would make me feel better, having that little bit more control over what type of poems would make me feel as though I could try and understand the poets better over their entire collection of poems, rather than a random selection of poems and poets from across the ages.

I wouldn't mind not being examined on it, it's just the idea of not being able to write it at all. Being constricted to only thinking one way and that way being through analysis only. I've looked at York and am thinking of applying there as well as applying at Oxford; I don't want to pin my hopes solely on this course so York is definately on my list (although that would be a Language & Linguistics course, as opposed to a Lit & Lang course). Thanks for mentioning it.

[anagrammatical]

Surely no matter where you went, you would be able to do creative writing outside your course? So if you don't mind being examined on it, surely that doesn't even enter into your analysis

[smellingbottle]

I'd agree with others that Oxford may not be the best place for you. Quite apart from anything else, the fact that your real interests seem to be outside the study of English literature as such is likely to come across in an interview and damage your chances of a place at very competitive colleges - I'm afraid wanting to be at a college which is 'old' (which includes the majority of them, by the way) isn't going to help you there. Although I confess to not understanding precisely why you would consider studying English, when you don't seem massively enthusiastic about it (not trying to be offensive here, but you sound as though you have all kinds of reservations, and would rather be doing something else!) - I'd also suggest you do a lot more research into other universities at which you could do a joint degree in English and Creative Writing

[dothestrand]

I'm in Year 13 and have an offer to read English at Oxford next year, so my advice obviously isn't as helpful as advice coming from a current English student, but I'd agree with the others who've suggested that Oxford might not be the best place for you

[dothestrand]

Oh, and one more thing - as you're not finding the Oxford website helpful, you might find this interesting:

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/wiki/English_at_Oxford

It's very detailed, and I found it useful when I was applying.